Senate Introduces Climate Bill

John Kerry and Joe Lieberman managed to introduce the climate bill today, despite both the growing off shore oil disaster in the Gulf (now with dying dolphins) and the recent coal mine tragedy. John Kerry believes the bill has a good chance of passing by the end of the year, despite Republicans throwing oil and gas industry fundraisers for some of their candidates. Lieberman said it “represents a market-driven partnership between the public and private sectors, to reduce carbon pollution and lessen the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.”

How does this bill compare with the House bill and the clean energy bill? There’s a great chart, via ClimateProgress, that compares the three.

But this legislation, in whatever form the sausage-makers spit out, is far from perfect. Our own Daphne Wysham, who heads our environmental project (SEEN), is concerned that the bill does far too little. And in light of the BP oil disaster, it’s clear that there needs to be much more regulation and oversight of corporations like oil companies that are involved with toxic substances. And Jeff Biggers wonders about the merits of “ensuring coal’s future,” as outlined in the bill.

We need to hold up the BP and Massey incidents as evidence that we need to move beyond petroleum and get serious about alternative energy and curbing emissions. Especially since, according to The Onion, the stupid environment isn’t even willing to meet us halfway.